Compare and contrast relative age dating with radiometric dating dating community foto ru

Radiometric dating is a means of determining the "age" of a mineral specimen by determining the relative amounts present of certain radioactive elements.By "age" we mean the elapsed time from when the mineral specimen was formed.It has the same number of protons, otherwise it wouldn't be uranium.The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom is called its atomic number.An atom with the same number of protons in the nucleus but a different number of neutrons is called an isotope.For example, uranium-238 is an isotope of uranium-235, because it has 3 more neutrons in the nucleus.This uses radioactive minerals that occur in rocks and fossils almost like a geological clock.

For example if you have a fossil trilobite and it was found in the Wheeler Formation.

Radioactive elements "decay" (that is, change into other elements) by "half lives." If a half life is equal to one year, then one half of the radioactive element will have decayed in the first year after the mineral was formed; one half of the remainder will decay in the next year (leaving one-fourth remaining), and so forth.

The formula for the fraction remaining is one-half raised to the power given by the number of years divided by the half-life (in other words raised to a power equal to the number of half-lives).

Scientists can use certain types of fossils referred to as index fossils to assist in relative dating via correlation.

Index fossils are fossils that are known to only occur within a very specific age range.

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